Oh God of all, I am thinking this day of my father, with a heart overflowing with gratitude. So often I heard his voice. strong and true as he would say, “Son, I am not your buddy, I am your father, I love you and this is what you need to understand.” And then the wisdom would flow.

The sentence that I oft times dreaded contained the blessed assurance that I mattered more to my dad than to anyone else in the world, and that my best interest is what concerned him – even if it is not what I wanted or understood.

I have been blessed with the great comfort and security of having had a dad for whom nothing was more precious than me. Only now, when my dad and I are very much buddies, do I treasure all those times he told me we were not.

For my dad, for my best buddy, I give you thanks, O Lord.

- Amen

(Rev. Paul S. Winston, Rector, St. John’s Episcopal Church, Charlotte, NC)